Summary: Adventures In Parenting

Clement Monie Monie 1
Professor Aimee Pawlowski
English 101
December 1, 2010

Adventures in Parenting
Parenting can be understood to imply all those activities that are done to a child to ensure the said child's wellbeing, happiness, education, comfort and material provision during the child's growth. These goods and services are rendered to the child by the parent or guardian. There are many adventures in parenting ranging from those that bring happiness, sadness, tiredness, excitement, anxiety, stress, shame and pride. Parenting is a normal feature in life that involves everybody either as a parent, being parented or was parented at some time from birth. In the article, “The Adventures in Parenting" the author, Raina Kelley, a
staff writer covering society and cultural affairs, recounts her personal experience of the adventures in parenting . According to her story, she became a parent two years ago when she gave birth to her son, Wade. When her son became two years old, he had to graduate from babysitting to day care. Kelley, a working mother and homemaker, shuttling between work and home, went through the arduous task of preparing her son for the transition. On the very first day of daycare, Wade took ill hence could not attend school. The disappointed mother had to miss work as she stayed home and was preoccupied with caring for sick Wade. This incident, amongst others forced Kelley to regard parenting as an ordeal just as hard to bear as an endurance sport such as “a decade-long Ironman triathlon”( paragraph 3) which never seems to end. Overwhelmed at times, she yells at her professionally preoccupied husband for not assisting her. She concludes that the happy people who usually surround an expecting mother, anxiously waiting for the baby’s arrival and Showering the mother with gift, should also do well to advice the expecting mother of the adventure that awaits her, that is, how tiring and frustrating parenting can be. I am a parent and I go through similar experiences in parenting my children. Before being a parent, the thought of one day becoming one used to feel me with a lot of excitement and great expectation. My house used to be very clean and organized. I had no problem locating my personal items in the house because everything stayed in its place. My activities were well organized and my personal agenda was precise. At home, I had most of my time to myself. My first son, Felix Monie, was born on February 8, 2002 and my family members and my in-laws received the birth in pomp and pageantry. Little did I know then that by opting to be a parent I had forfeited more of my personal liberties, serenity and organization than I had expected. Since then Clement Monie Jr. has also been born since September 22nd,2005 followed by twins boys, Kyle Monie and Kylian Monie on June 20th, 2007.I have quite a busy house now. The good of it too is that in life, everything has a price or the opportunity cost. One cannot have both at the same time. Unlike Raina, I did not expect to have it all completely rosy but I have fuller hands than I had hoped and I had also known that not all would be the same again.
Parenting them is very adventurous for me. My house needs more regular cleaning, and arranging than before and most of the times I find it difficult locating household items when I need them. The kids will like to touch and play with everything. I am busier at home now than before and it is more difficult for me to leave my house in a rush just like Raina Kelly, as she herself puts it, “ From now on, it will take you 40 minutes minimum to leave the house” paragraph (4). It is quite fun when I go through my children's school books and try to teach them letter sounds and numbers. They are always there stretching me to breaking point with their constant fighting, screaming and messing up the walls of the house with crayon. Like Raina Kelly, sometimes “I realized I was doomed to spend the rest of my life

Monie 3
Completely off balance—emotionally, physically”.
Their demands sometimes can be endless and at times I find it difficult to determine how far to go along with them. I try very hard now to be a good parent particularly because I work full time and go to school full time. Sometimes just when I return from school and I am about to take a rest before setting off for work, Kylian will force me to play soccer with him. Such moments are in the words of Raina Kelly "psychologically comforting for him but a disaster for me" (paragraph 2) due to the fatigue. One dull chilly Friday night, 11/19/2010, at 11:30 P.M. after attending classes earlier in the day and working second shift in the evening, I felt burnt out and very exhausted. I got home hoping to have my much deserved rest .Just when I entered the house, I found my first son, Felix Monie sweating profusely. After closely examining him, I realized that his temperature was not only very high but he had a swollen jaw. I immediately drove him to the emergency ward in the Holland hospital .As I drove, I kept feeling guilty of not having been there earlier for him to see that he was ill. Earlier in the day, I had received an embarrassing phone call from Mr. Daniel Harris, the principal of Eagle Crest Charter Academy, Holland where Felix attends school, informing me that Felix's poor conduct in school that day had earned him a disciplinary one-day suspension from school. At that moment, just like Raina Kelly in the aforementioned
article, I almost “declared myself a complete failure as a mom (dad)" see paragraph. (Dad in parentheses is my own addition to fit the context). Fortunately, he was attended to in the hospital and after a series of laboratory tests; he was given some medication and discharged to go home after I had spent a sleepless night with him in the hospital. Sometimes, I am called back untimely from work when Kyle Monie is bleeding from a wound he sustained after a fall from a high table. As I overcome one trying experience, another emerges. It is a continuous series of adventures. Raina Kelly sums it up in her article supra, “Parenting is an endurance sport, not a sprint. Actually, it’s more like a decades-long Ironman Triathlon—just when you’re done biking 112 miles, you have to get in the water to swim 2.4 more (and don’t forget the marathon)”.Sometimes I am confused on what is proper for my children. At such moments, my guide to proper parenting adventures is the Holy bible. The bible says in the book of Ephesians chapter 6: 4, “And ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” This is because public opinion can never be unanimous in the particular direction one follows in parenting. Raina Kelly ponders, “Why isn’t there ever a definitive opinion about what’s good for your kid?”She continues, “No matter what choice you make, there’s always somebody willing to tell you that you’ve doomed your kid to a nightmare life of drug and alcohol abuse.” (paragraph 3)
Parenting adventures are not all only bitter, stressful and frustrating.
Some are sweet and comforting to the mind. Last week I received a mail from Mrs. Kreple, Clement Monie Jr.'s kindergarten teacher in Eagle Crest Charter Academy School, Holland. The mail captioned, “Your child is really making the grade this year”, informed me how lucky I was to have an intelligent, discipline and hardworking child like Clement Monie Jr. The mail concluded that Clement was the pride of the class. This is an adventure of happiness and pride as a succeeding parent. At such moments, I feel productive. It is equally a joyful adventure for me to be part of my children’s lives and see them grow up. I enjoy watching them run around with little smiles on their faces as their tiny voices call me “dad, dad, dad” countless times daily. They expose me to some new people who are parents of their school and classmates and sometimes we end up in great friendship. Sometimes when I have had a hard day at work and I am tired and low spirited, just as I reached home, one of my sons, Kyle Monie would welcome me, embrace and kiss me, and would reminds me how much he loves me. The bad mood and fatigue would just fade away leaving happiness in its place. It is quite amazing and fun when I witness my children sing, laugh and act adult issues around the house at times. Most of the times, they make the house quite lively and interesting. Seeing them compete with one another for attention or for a good compliment
from me is also awesome. Though parenting has both blissful and unpalatable adventures, it is a natural part of life. I feel that if anybody chooses to parent and is blessed with such an opportunity, it should be done with all the zeal and love because if all ends well, the bitter part of it may always be forgotten. Like Kelly’s experiences in her afore-cited article, which I have exhaustively reflected upon and alluded to in this essay, it is evident from the above analyses that those parenting experiences are my daily routine. They make me feel accomplished and satisfied of paying my own dues to my family and to the society. I hope I am setting a good example for others to emulate as the baton of parenting passes from one generation to another for parenting adventures are an exciting and exacting continuum with a definite life span in each particular case.